Butter and “Buttery”

Butter and “Buttery”

I had grown weary of The Wife’s routine buying of Land O’ Lakes butter – not that it’s bad stuff, just boring. I begged her to let me do all the butter shopping, and then promptly forgot about my request. Today, The Wife was out shopping at The Egg Store and picked up some of this Clarendon Hills brand (made at 8752 S. Commercial in Chicago).



It turned out to be fine stuff (reasonable at about three bucks the half pound), very light and creamy, with a richness you don’t get the four-sticks-to-a-box varieties. Because it’s whipped, it has a foamy airiness that gives it a delicate texture and seems to accelerate melting on warm bread.



There’s no annatto coloring involved, just a random blob of butter that defies easy placement in a butter tray but is way worth the effort, because it tastes really good, just about restaurant-quality.

As though to mock me, The Wife could not resist buying this, too:



We shall make sure to put it out at the next Vegan bacchanalia.

Hammond

I see this stuff everywhere (the clarendon hills.) Just one question: Is it worth it?

P.s. I was at the egg store yesterday too - HOPE you got some of their texas pink grapefruit @49c/lb. If you are a grapefruit fan, these things are sweeter than most oranges I've had so far this year.

Ever since I read that James Beard's favorite hors d'oeuvre was buttered radishes, I'd been waiting to find the right butter.

Tonight, with some dark and grainy Lithuanian bread, I buttered up some radishes with this stuff and ground a little sea salt on 'em; they were crisp, fresh, rich, tangy, entirely unpretentious, almost naive, about as simple as a pre-dinner bite could be. So satisfying. Pure.

Plugra butter is the featured butter in our house. It is unsalted, not in sticks. We have been known to do "butter runs" to Whole Foods to replenish the stock. We use it almost exclusively except when I have to sample a "random butter" from an intriguing market we're in.

The Lovely Donna wrote:Plugra butter is the featured butter in our house. It is unsalted, not in sticks. We have been known to do "butter runs" to Whole Foods to replenish the stock. We use it almost exclusively except when I have to sample a "random butter" from an intriguing market we're in.

You do know that you can get Plugra at Lincolnwood Produce for a lot less $$$, don't you?

stevez wrote:You do know that you can get Plugra at Lincolnwood Produce for a lot less $$$, don't you?

That is very good to know. I was listening to the Sterns enthuse about Plugra on a recent podcast and made a mental note to get some.

stevez wrote:
You do know that you can get Plugra at Lincolnwood Produce for a lot less $$$, don't you?

Steve,

I made a stop at Lincolnwood Produce on the way to rehearsal just last week and was surprised to find just two or three types of butter with no imports at all. This was in the dairy section next to the farmer's cheese, yogurt, etc... No Plugra.

Could it be that there is another butter section somewhere else in the store?

Evil Ronnie wrote:

stevez wrote:
You do know that you can get Plugra at Lincolnwood Produce for a lot less $$$, don't you?

Steve,

I made a stop to Lincolnwood Produce on the way to rehearsal just last week and was surprised to find just two or three types of butter with no imports at all. This was in the dairy section next to the farmer's cheese, yogurt, etc... No Plugra.

Could it be that there is another butter section somewhere else in the store?

I could swear I saw it just the other day, but I might be getting confused with Family Fruit Market, which definitely sells it. I'll double check next time I'm at LP.

stevez wrote:You do know that you can get Plugra at Lincolnwood Produce for a lot less $$$, don't you?

Anymore, you can generally find MANY types of specialty butters in a wide variety of specialty and ethnic markets. I am kind of curious what they are charging locally, although I am more in the LOL camp personally.

In fact, some of the items that I used to pick up elsewhere in the US are now available nearly everywhere.

Just stopped at Joseph's Marketplace last night. Five varieties of imported butters. Kerrygold (Irish?) was $2.49 for 8oz and Plugra was the most expensive at $3.29 for 8 oz/.

One of these weekends, I guess i will make my own butter to see if there is a major difference in taste.

For what it's worth, Plugra is "European style" but not imported.

http://www.kellerscreamery.com/our-brands/plugra/

jlawrence01 wrote: Plugra was the most expensive at $3.29 for 8 oz/.

Amata wrote:For what it's worth, Plugra is "European style" but not imported. http://www.kellerscreamery.com/our-brands/plugra/

FYI, the site Amata links to offers coupons to help bring down the cost of this rather higher-than-usually priced spread.

jlawrence01 wrote:Plugra was the most expensive at $3.29 for 8 oz/.

Plugra is $3.99 per lb. at most Whole foods locations, but for whatever reason, the new store at Peterson/Cicero doesn't carry it.

FWIW: The Dominick's we frequent on Broadway (about Elmdale or so) carries both Plugra and Kerrygold. I also just bought some Lurpak (Danish) butter the other day--initial reports from the field are highly encouraging.

Gypsy Boy wrote:FWIW: The Dominick's we frequent on Broadway (about Elmdale or so) carries both Plugra and Kerrygold. I also just bought some Lurpak (Danish) butter the other day--initial reports from the field are highly encouraging.

After much trial (and some error), I'd say that Lurpak is my favorite of the lot. But the product which inspired this thread is one that I've not tried yet. I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

=R=

Last year we did a tasting of seven butters. We limited the tasting ingredients to butter spread on good crusty bread. The results were interesting:

No one picked the unsalted butter as a favorite. Even I who have always advocated unsalted butter was surprised at how flat it tasted in a side-by-side comparison with salted butters. However, the same unsalted butters scored much higher when they were sprinkled with a coarse sea salt. The crunch of the salt was a very nice contrast with the smoothness of the butter.

For value, taste and appearance Kerrygold was the winner. Plugra with its high butterfat content is certainly my general choice for baking, but scored very poorly as a spread.

jygach wrote:Last year we did a tasting of seven butters. We limited the tasting ingredients to butter spread on good crusty bread. The results were interesting:

No one picked the unsalted butter as a favorite. Even I who have always advocated unsalted butter was surprised at how flat it tasted in a side-by-side comparison with salted butters. However, the same unsalted butters scored much higher when they were sprinkled with a coarse sea salt. The crunch of the salt was a very nice contrast with the smoothness of the butter.

For value, taste and appearance Kerrygold was the winner. Plugra with its high butterfat content is certainly my general choice for baking, but scored very poorly as a spread.

Isn't unsalted butter really most useful for baking, when you need to control the sodium? For spreading, it seems like salted is generally preferred (I know this is ultimately a matter of taste, but I'm talking general practice).

jygach wrote:Plugra with its high butterfat content is certainly my general choice for baking, but scored very poorly as a spread.

I feel the same way about Plugra; great for baking and not as good for eating.

The best butter I've ever eaten is Cabot's Whey Butter (salted), which they offered via internet, a few years back. It was actually a great deal. They shipped 4 pounds of the whey butter and 4 pounds of their 83% Unsalted, which was comparable to plugra but slightly better, IMO. Anyway, the delivered price for the 8 total pounds was under $50, which was a great deal at the time. For whatever reasons, they no longer offer the whey butter over the internet. They claim to have encountered shipping problems and subsequent customer complaints. It's really a shame too because that stuff was amazing.

I've called and tried to talk them into selling me more of it but they won't budge. It can be ordered on an industrial basis but reefer shipping from Vermont, especially on such a small volume, is costly and they won't just FED-EX smaller orders. But if anyone wants to split a pallet, just let me know.

=R=

David Hammond wrote:Isn't unsalted butter really most useful for baking, when you need to control the sodium? For spreading, it seems like salted is generally preferred (I know this is ultimately a matter of taste, but I'm talking general practice).

Generally true, but I had always found a kind of purity in the taste of unsalted butter for spreading. I think it depends on which brand of unsalted butter you are using and freshness, particularly, with unsalted butters is paramount.

I used to do exactly as you say. I used unsalted butter for baking and salted for most other purposes. Then I decided to switch. I haven't had salted butter in the house for many years.

I tried one of those little foil wrapped pats the other day on a slice of bread and literally could not finish the bread. The difference in flavor was far more profound than I could ever have expected. While my reaction may have been more extreme than most, I will say that it easily confirmed that we won't be buying salted butter again for a long, long, long time.

I believe it is also true that unsalted butter is generally fresher.

Butters sighted in my neighborhood today.

Produce World (ethnic, Lawrence & Cumberland): Laprak (Danish) $2.99, Kerrygold (Irish) $3.49, Jana Valley (New Zealand) $2.19, Bitau (Greek) $2.09, Clarendon on sale for $1.99, as well as lots of different Polish butters that all blurred together. More important, they had plenty of those lamb shaped butters ($1.29) necesssary for the Easter table (or for Spring!).

If Clarendon is your thing you might want to stock up (butter freezes exceptionally well) at the Rich's Food & Liqour (Polish grocer) at the corner of Lawrence & Harlem (Chicagoland's longest traffic light) at $1.59.

My non-baking preference is Kerrygold salted, but I've yet to do a double blind study.

-ramon

edited to name the Polish grocer

Interesingly (or not), Jana Valley used to be Czech in origin. Then it changed to New Zealand. When we contacted the importer he explained that the Czech butter became too expensive (when CZ joined the EU), so he found another source. Since the Jana Valley brand was his, he simply kept the name of the product the same.

=R=

We use unsalted butter for all of our cooking and baking, but keep some land o lakes whipped salted butter for bread.

I always use unsalted. If a hit of salt is desired, I sprinkle on a little maldon, fleur de sel or some other exotica.

Price check at Lincolnwood Produce today:

Jana Valley (225 Grams) $2.29
Kerrygold (8 oz.) $3.09
President (7 oz.) $3.49
Lurpak (8 oz.) $2.99
Clarendon Hills $1.89

There was no Plugra. Note that some brands are selling less than 8 oz in their packiging. Both salted and unsalted varieties of these were available along with plain old Land O Lakes and an off brand.

I've enjoyed unsalted Plugra for several years. I'm among those who...while not doing as much baking as I'd like...certainly uses butter in my cooking and prefer to manage the salt outside of prior product inclusion. On the other hand, I appreciate a decent salted, whipped butter for the odd roll and whatnot...I tend to store the "better" butter packs that some delivery joints offer in amounts akin to crappy soy sauce from crappy Chinese-American places. I find Plugra works well in compound butters...specifically, roasted garlic...where I take a squeezed-out bulb of the eponymous combine with half pound of Plugra + fresh-cracked black pepper + Diamond kosher salt + a pinch or two of cayenne...roll in plastic wrap...form cylinder in foil and freeze. The grassiness of the Plugra offsets the unctuousness of the roasted garlic whereas say, Land O' Lakes...which I use occasionally, but mainly so I can make Land O' Lakes Indian maiden "boob" cards(with the boxes)...I imagine is too bland to cut the garlic. I've tried the whipped Clarendon and wasn't impressed.

I went to Woodman's on Friday to see if they carried all of the butters.

I *did* find all the butters mentioned ... and another one - Meyenberg Goat Milk butter. It is about $6.29 for 8 oz.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I've called and tried to talk them into selling me more of it but they won't budge. It can be ordered on an industrial basis but reefer shipping from Vermont, especially on such a small volume, is costly and they won't just FED-EX smaller orders. But if anyone wants to split a pallet, just let me know. :wink:

Ronnie,
Not right now, but bump this thread next October before serious baking season starts. Ummm... just how big is a palette? I know we'll go through ten to fifteen pounds on Christmas cookies and other cooking in the holiday season.

LTH Co-Op anyone?

JoelF wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:I've called and tried to talk them into selling me more of it but they won't budge. It can be ordered on an industrial basis but reefer shipping from Vermont, especially on such a small volume, is costly and they won't just FED-EX smaller orders. But if anyone wants to split a pallet, just let me know.

Ronnie,
Not right now, but bump this thread next October before serious baking season starts. Ummm... just how big is a palette? I know we'll go through ten to fifteen pounds on Christmas cookies and other cooking in the holiday season.

LTH Co-Op anyone?

A pallet of butter is about 2,000 pounds but I don't really think there is a minimum order requirement. It's just that the refrigerated/frozen freight cost to move that butter from Vermont to Chicago would be between $300 and $400 (and that's a very competitive rate, via my work resources).

The intriguing part is that the freight rate is basically a minimum rate and will cover up to 2,000 pounds of freight (shipped from one single location to another). So, even if we could even muster a group order of 400 pounds of butter (LMAO!), the freight cost would only be about a buck a pound. After that, there would be some additional expense because the freight charge only gets the material to a single drop point in town. But I'm sure we could find some way to have it dropped at a public freezer facility and available for individual pickups, etc. for not too much more money (again, I have strong contacts in this area). And since Cabot offers many other high-quality products besides butter, I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult for an LTH group to put an order together to fill that pallet and maximize the freight savings. Remember also that the whey butter is, by its very nature, salted (since it's made from whey, not raw milk) so it's probably not optimal for baking. But again, their 83% unsalted is great and we could certainly order both products (and others) to fill out our pallet of buttery deliverance.

I'm fairly certain that the whey butter is available year-round. The issue, as you suggested, would be to find a time when it would be most convenient for participants to take delivery of their product(s). If 15 people would take 20# each, we'd be damn close to the $1/pound threshold.

It could definitely work. I can foresee that it would be a bit of a ballet, but if the interest were there, I'm pretty sure we could make this happen in a way that makes financial sense. With this type of volume, the initial price on most any item we order is bound to be below what we're normally used to paying.

Not that I have any vested interest in Cabot (in fact, the fact that they won't just fed-ex a case is highly annoying) but really, this butter would be worth the trouble. Between me and other friends/family members who bake regularly, I can probably commit to about 50#.

=R=

Plugra is available at $3.59 per lb. at HarvesTime Foods.
2632 W. Lawrence
Chicago
773-989-4400
Hours 7 am - 9 pm 7 days/week

A little closer to home, we might be able to split a bulk purchase from one of the producers in this article:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... _n16639428